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All posts for the month September, 2016

Lately I can hardly watch the news as I almost want to puke when I hear some of the stories centering around race and racism. Obviously, MANY of the reports are based on POLITICS! And that is what makes me want to PUKE! Does everything in our damned society have to be about politics? Good God GET OVER IT ALREADY! Fact is MOST politicians are criminally insane and say anything to get your votes. And that is what motivates the politician….getting re-elected! He/she doesn’t give one damn about your plight in life nor your life circumstances. It’s time we face REALITY and STOP pretending like those who allegedly represent us give a crap. THEY DON’T!

With that off my chest let me say that when it comes to race certain politicians have a vested interest in keeping the flames of racism afire! They do so for THEIR OWN political gain. In fact, race is a social construct used as a divisive means towards a SELFISH political end. BUT….race is NOT a scientific reality! Did you get that? RACE IS NOT A SCIENTIFIC REALITY!!

Human beings love for everything to be in neat little categories mostly based on our own judgments be they correct or incorrect. This is how we create the divisions that we use to separate us, however, those divisions are ARTIFICIAL! They do NOT exist in reality but only in our little minds! Our divisions work to divide us and keep us divided and when it comes to skin color we discover race is less than skin deep!

Here’s a scientific fact: When it comes right down to it was are ALL ONE COLOR and that color is neither black or white but RED! How’s that? It is the RED blood inside of all of us no matter what our skin color is!!

IF you base your judgments on people based on their outer appearances then you are a superficial human being badly in need of education or re-education! If you really want to know someone you have to look INSIDE them because that is where you find the REAL person. What do we see when we look INSIDE? We see we are all one color, red, and we see that most often the person inside of the person is actually pretty fantastic! Continue Reading

Back in 1982 work began on a road across a pond in a new housing development known as “Windover Farms.” A backhoe operator began to notice the many “rocks” he was digging up and found that odd as rocks were not common in the area. Turns out the “rocks” weren’t rocks at all but bones….human bones!

Thus began the discovery of America’s Bog People at a site that has become known as the Windover Archaeological Site in Brevard County, Florida. The bones were buried 6 feet (2m) or deeper beneath the peat at the bottom of the pond and under 3 to 10 feet of water.

Bones of men, women, and children were found of all ages from infants to people as old as perhaps 70. Total to date is 168 individuals found. The average height of adult males is about 5 ft 9 in (175 cm). The skeletons showed evidence of the effects of disease and healed wounds. Many of the bones of the children showed interrupted growth possibly due to malnutrition or severe disease. Older females showed signs of osteoporosis and several bones of adults both male and female showed signs of osteoarthritis. Some of the skeletons showed signs of wounds that were likely the cause of death of some of the individuals. The pelvis of one male had a spear point embedded in it while others showed severe skull fractures. Continue Reading

I ran across a little blog concerning history and Bigfoot (see below link). Here’s a few tidbits I gathered up reading some of the posts on that blog:

Naturalist Jose Mariano Mocino is an important person in Bigfoot history although most people, including BF researchers, have never heard of him. He lived in New Spain back in 1792 and he was part of an expedition to the Pacific Northwest in the US and British Columbia, Canada. In a book he wrote he mentioned how some Native Americans in this region were afraid of a creature living in the woods. They called it “Matlox.” They described the creature as covered with hair and as having a human-like head. They said it had strong fangs that were stronger than those of a bear and long arms and they described it as being extraordinarily strong. What they pretty much described to Jose was some sort of APE MAN. Jose apparently never saw the creature himself.

Back in 986 A.D. the famous Viking explorer Leif Erickson visited the New World (long before Columbus did) and as things ended up this visit became one of the very first documented recordings of what we refer to as Bigfoot today! Erickson described creatures as “monsters that were horribly ugly, hairy, swarthy (dark skinned), and with great black eyes.” He also said it made some hellish howls and screeches. The Vikings called the Native People in the Americas the “Skrelling.” The Viking sagas say these people made boats and dwellings, traded goods, made weapons, and other things. Where the Vikings referring to Bigfoot? Sorry but the answer is NO! They were speaking of the Natives in the area and this contradicts popular belief that Vikings spoke of Bigfoot in the Americas. Continue Reading

Very few fossil remains of chimps and gorilla ancestors have been found anywhere in Africa but here are a few:

Nakalipithecus
Ouranopithecus
Sahelanthropus

Nakalipithecus nakayamai was found in 2005 by a team of Japanese and Kenyan researchers in mud flow deposits in the Nakali region of northern Kenya’s Rift Valley Province. For short it is simply known as the “Nakali Ape.” The fossil remains consisted of a jawbone and 11 teeth that were dated at 10 mya. The enamel on the teeth was thick suggesting its diet consisted of hard nuts and seeds. It is believed that this species is close to the common ancestor shared between humans, chimps, and apes (gorillas). It resembles Ouranopithecus fossils found in Greece.

Nakalipithecus nakayamai artistic impression

Ouranopithecus includes two species. One being O. macedoniensis (found in Macedonia and dated at between 9.6 mya- 8.7 mya) and the other being O. turkae (found in Turkey and dated at 8.7-7.4 mya). Fossil remains of Ouranopithecus were found in Greece and Bulgaria and it is believed to have been a Eurasian ape which is now extinct. Based on dental and facial anatomy this species may belong to the dryopithecines which were a tribe of Eurasian apes believed to be close early ancestors to gorillas, chimps, and humans (the Great Apes). However, opposing theories have this species more closely related to the Ponginae (orangutans). Some researchers consider this species to be the last common ancestor of humans and apes and the early ancestors of Australopithecines and Humans although this theory is highly controversial and not widely accepted. Continue Reading

The skeletal remains of an ancient Hohokam disabled woman were unearthed at a site near Tempe, Arizona, USA. It appears she suffered from Scoliosis, Rickets, and TB. She was a young Hohokam woman who’d been buried with precious grave goods and it appears her burial was one of great reverence. Nearly 200 other burials are in the same area but none like this young disabled woman’s.

The remains consisted of a complete skeleton and it is estimated that she was around 20 years old when she died. The grave is known as Burial 167. Several ceramic items were found in the grave indicating the great respect her community must have had for her.

This excavation was led by Eric Cox and he wonders just how she even survived to the age of 20 with her disabilities. He also considers it mysterious as to why she was given such a rich burial typically only reserved for elders and Hohokam elites. Well it is no mystery really as I think our ancients respected disabled people rather than shunned them as some do in our modern society. Contrary to popular misconception ancient societies were not as “savage” as we’ve been led to believe!

A large Hohokam village was also located near this cemetery in which the young woman’s remains were found. It is believed to have been inhabited by the Hohokam from 700-1400 CE. The site was actually first documented in the 1940s and is known as “La Plaza.” However, most of the history of the site was lost due to the growth of Tempe and Phoenix along with the Arizona State University campus.

Researchers said that when they dug the skeletal remains up they were struck by the oddness of the skeleton. Her left side was gracile as if it had not developed along with her right side. The left side was like it belonged to a 5 ft high person while the right side looked like it belonged to a 5 ft 6 in tall person. Her post-cranial skeleton was stained brown but there was no indication of burning of her remains or anything else for that matter. So we don’t know why or how this was stained brown.

The young woman’s skeleton also revealed she had cavities in her vertebrae and leg bones likely caused from some sort of systemic infection. Her spine was curved noticeably (scoliosis) at an angle of about 55 degrees. This could have been caused by a lack of Vitamin D in her diet researchers have theorized. This could have been the result of lack of sunlight from which we get Vitamin D as one source. The young woman may have been so disabled that she couldn’t or seldom was able to go outside. Likely she could not walk also and she may have been born with her disabilities.

Most Hohokam people consumed a diet that caused problems with their teeth. BUT this young disabled woman had PERFECT TEETH surprisingly!! What this tells us is that she didn’t eat the same foods most Hohokam people ate and this may be indicative of some high status she held in Hohokam society.

Down in South Africa is a region known as the “Cradle of Humankind” not far from the city of Johannesburg. It is called by this name because more fossils of early human ancestors have been found there more than anywhere else. This is the very place where Paleoanthropologist Lee Berger found Australopithecus sediba in 2008 and Homo naledi in 2015.

This is also the place where in a fossilized human partial skull and brain were found back in 1924 by Raymond Dart of the Department of Anatomy at Witwatersand University. This find was and still is incredibly rare! This fossil is believed to be from the hominid species Au. africanus and it took a long while for it to be accepted by academia as an ancient human ancestor because at the time of the find Piltdown Man ruled the roost in Paleontology. It was only after Piltdown Man was exposed as a HOAX that academics began to take Dart and his find seriously.

The fossilized partial skull and brain belong to an individual hominid nicknamed “Taung Child.” (sometimes referred to as Taung Baby). This specimen is believed to have been a very young Au. africanus and the fossil has been called the most important anthropological find of teh 20th century. Taung Child is believed to have lived somewhere between 2.8-3.3 mya. Dart and other colleagues such as Dr. Robert Bloom believed Au. africanus was a “transitional species” of ancient hominid between apes and modern humans.

Taung Child (Au. africanus)

This is not a large skull. In fact you can almost hold it in the palm of your hand. It has been postulated the Taung Child may have been killed by an eagle or other large predatory bird and this is based on damage to the skull and eye sockets. Paleoanthropologists estimate that this specimen stood about 105 cm (3 1/2 ft tall) and weighed between 9-11 kilograms (20-24 lbs). Its cranial capacity was between 400-500 cc. It is believed to have lived mostly in a Savannah environment in Africa. It is also believed to have been a Omnivore. This skull was actually dug up by quarrymen working in Taung, South Africa and it along with other fossils were sent to Dart for his examination.

Australopithecus africanus was once considered a “killer ape” because its fossils are often found alongside animal bones but today we know that predators also preyed on this species of ancient hominid. It’s also believed this species lived together in groups for protection. Not only is Taung Child a member of this species but so is “Mrs. Ples.” Au. africanus should not be confused with Au. afarensis which is the famous “Lucy” species. Continue Reading

The demise of Neanderthals may have nothing to do with innovative hunting weapons carried by humans from west Asia, according to a new study. The researchers say their findings mean that we may need to rethink the reasons humans survived Neanderthals – and that we may not have behaved as differently as we thought. The researchers looked at innovative stone weapons used by humans about 42,000-34,000 years ago. Traditionally, anthropologists believed that innovation in weapons enabled humans to spread out of Africa to Europe. However, the new study suggests that the innovation was not a driving force for humans to migrate into Europe as previously thought – they were no better equipped than the Neanderthals.

When I was about 8 or 9 years old my brother and I were hunting with my father in an area southwest of Flagstaff, Arizona known as Sycamore Canyon. We’d finished hunting and were headed back home but we had to stop along the way for my father to relieve himself. A very large bald eagle was circling overhead as we stopped and while my father did his business my brother and I got out of the truck to watch the eagle. He was magnifient! I walked over to the other side of the dirt road near the base of what appeared to be a hill. I noticed a finely cut reddish stone protruding out of the dirt at the base of the hill and called my father and brother over to look at it. My father glanced at it and simply passed it off telling me, “Oh that’s just the foundation of some old pioneers house” and off we went back home. Well, even at my young age it certainly looked like something more than some old pioneers homestead foundation as the stone was perfectly cut, from what I could see of it, and polished. The reason I mention this story is because for decades now there have been rumors of an Aztec or Toltec pyramid located somewhere in Arizona but no one has ever found it. Even today I wonder if that stone might have been it. What was buried under that hill? Some old pioneers homestead or the legendary pyramid? I was young and do not know for certain where we were at the time other than we were leaving the Sycamore Canyon area and heading back to Flagstaff but someday I’m going back there to see if I can find the spot.

Here’s another story. South of Winslow, Arizona just past Sunset Pass where Highway 87 makes a southwestward turn and just before the turn off to Chavez Pass over on the east side of the highway behind a barbed wire fence used to sit a very large and obviously cut square piece of white stone. It was there for decades and I always thought is was out of place. The landscape behind this stone block was strewn with smaller white stones. Some appeared cut while others appeared cut off of larger junks. None of them were polished but they all were “in the ruff.” I always wanted to stop there when I was a boy and check it out because the whole site sure did look like some kind of ancient settlement to me! But, we never stopped and when I got older and was able to drive I went there once and found everything gone. All that remained were a few scattered pieces of white stone that looked like they’d been hacked off from larger pieces. The huge square cut stone was gone also and it was funny because outside of that location there were no such white stones at all. What happened to it all? Was it something natural or had there once been an ancient settlement there at one time built by some culture such as possibly the Aztec, Mayans, or Toltecs? And what happened to the big square cut stonework and the other cut stones in the area? Someone obviously whisked them away but who and why? Continue Reading

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